Socket member



March 29, 19 55 A. c. PETERS 2,705,312

SOCKET MEMBER Filed April 11, 1951 Fuel \NVENTOR ARTHU C QPETER$ EY 80?. (1AA [\TT ORNEY United States Patent SOCKET MEMBER Arthur C. Peters, Midlothian, Ill., assignor to Cinch Manufacturing Corporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois Application April 11, 1951, Serial No. 220,446

1 Claim. (Cl. 339-194) This invention relates to tube sockets of the so-called laminated type comprising, in my preferred embodiment, a pair of superposed discs of insulating material secured together and carrying prong-engaging contact members.

The disc elements of a laminated tube socket of the type described are secured together to form the body of the socket unit by fastener means such as a rivet disposed within aligned apertures in the centers of the discs. In addition, the discs have aligned apertures on opposed sides near marginal edges thereof, adapted to receive rivets by which the socket is secured to a supporting panel such as the chassis of a radio or a television set. It has been found that when an ordinary round rivet is used in the center of the discs for securing the discs together prior to attachment of the socket unit to its support, the discs may rotate one to another thereby moving the apertures for receiving the panel attaching rivets out of alignment. This is an inconvenience to assembly line workers who operate at a high speed due to the fact that they must turn the discs to re-align these apertures before attachment of the socket to the support can be effected. It is the object of this invention to provide a simple, but efiicient means whereby a projection extending out of the normal plane of one of the discs cooperates with contact members carried by the socket to prevent relative rotation of the discs.

Other objects and uses of my invention will be apparent from inspection of the drawing and specification hereinbelow set forth.

Referring to the drawing in which I have illustrated a preferred embodiment of my invention,

Fig. 1 is a top plan view of an improved socket unit with a pair of contact members shown in dotted lines,

Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. l with a portion of the upper insulating discs broken away to show a pair of contact members,

Fig. 3 is an enlarged section taken along the line 3-3 of Fig. 2,

Fig. 4 is an enlarged section taken along the line 44 of Fig. 1 and Fig. 5 is a perspective view of a contact member preferably carried by the socket unit.

Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawing, the socket unit 1 comprises an upper insulating plate 2 and a lower insulating plate 3. The discs 2 and 3 are preferably formed of a phenolic condensate material having proper insulating qualities. The discs 2 and 3 are disposed in superposed relation and provide aligned central apertures 4 and 5 as most clearly shown in Fig. 3. The lower disc 3 has an annular series of contact-receiving apertures 6 (as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2) disposed about the central aperture 5. In my preferred form, an annular series of terminal-receiving apertures 7 (Fig. 2) is disposed outside the annular series 6. The upper disc has an annular series of prong-receiving apertures 8 in alignment with the apertures 6 of the lower disc. The disc 2 has an aperture 9 near each of opposed ends and these apertures are in alignment when the parts of the socket are in proper assembly with apertures 10 (Fig. 2) of the disc 3. The pairs of aligned apertures 9 and 10 receive rivets by which the socket is attached to a supporting panel (not shown) such as a radio chassis.

The contact member 11 which I have chosen to illustrate my invention is similar to the type of contact described in United States Patent No. 2,519,121 issued August 15, 1950, to S. M. Del Camp. The contacts are carried by the lower disc 3 and provide a base portion 12 which is supported by the upper surface 13 of the lower disc 3. A prong-receiving opening 14 (Fig. 5) is provided near one end of the base portion 12 and integral prong-engaging wings 15 extend downwardly from the base portion 12 on opposed sides of the aperture 14. The Wings 15 project through the openings 6 when the contact members are in assembly with the insulating discs. A terminal portion 16 forms an integral part of the contact member 11 and is joined to the base portion 12 at an opposite end from that having the aperture 14. The terminal 16 in my preferred embodiment extends at an angle to the base portion 12 and projects through an opening 7 of the disc 3 when the contact is in assembly with the disc. It will be noted from inspection of Fig. 2 that the base portions 12 of adjacent contact members are spaced substantially one from another when the contact members are in assembly with the insulating discs. This lateral spaced relationship is of importance in connection with the present invention as will be hereinafter described.

The upper disc 2 which rests on the base portions 12 of the contacts 11 is secured in assembly with the lower disc 3 by means of the rivet 17 which extends through the openings 4 and 5 of the discs and is headed over against the upper surface 18 of the disc 2 and the lower surface 19 of the disc 3. The rivet 14 is preferably round in construction for cost reducing purposes with the result that under normal conditions it is possible for one of the discs to rotate relative to the other disc about the rivet as an axis. This causes the pairs of aligned openings 9-10 to become misaligned thus making it necessary to rotate manually the discs 2 and 3 to bring the openings back into alignment so that rivets may be projected through the discs.

As a means for preventing rotation of the discs 2 and 3 prior to attachment of the socket to a support, the upper disc 2 is constructed to provide a projecting element 20 (Figs. 1 and 4) disposed in predetermined position to extend toward the disc 3 between facing outer surfaces 21 of the wing elements 15 of adjacent contact members 11. The projecting element 20 is preferably in the form of a lug which is struck from the material of the disc 2. By reason of the fact that the disc 2 is spaced from the disc 3 a distance equal to the thickness of the metal of the base portion 12, the lug 20 is formed to project beyond the lower surface of the disc 2 a distance not greater than the thickness of the base portion 12. As a result of this construction, any tendency of one of the discs to rotate with respect to the other will cause the lug element 20 to contact the surface 21 of one of the contact members between which it is disposed. Thus, engagement of the projecting element with the contact members makes it impossible for the discs to rotate one to another a sutficient number of degrees to effect misalignment of the rivet-receiving openings.

As a result of my invention, the condition will not exist requiring manual manipulation of the socket discs prior to final attachment of the socket to a support and elimination of this time-taking assembly step heretofore necessary will increase substantially the speed of the assembly process.

Although I have illustrated and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, I do not wish to be limited thereby as the scope of my invention is best defined by the following claim.

I claim:

An electrical socket comprising upper and lower superimposed plates of insulating material having aligned central apertures, a fastener member received in said apertures for holding said plates in assembly, the first of said plates having a series of contact-receiving apertures disposed about said central aperture, the second of said plates having a series of prong-receiving apertures positioned in alignment with said contact-receiving apertures, said plates having aligned fastener-receiving openings on opposed sides of said socket, a plurality of contacts carried by said socket, each having a body portion disposed between said plates and a prong-engaging portion disposed in one of said contact-receiving apertures, the body portions of adjacent pairs of contacts abutting said first plate and spaced laterally one from the other, and said 3 second plate having an integral tongue portion displaced from the surface of the second plate and extending between the body portion of one pair of adjacent contacts for engagement with said contacts to prevent rotation of said plates one to another.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,026,420 Detar Dec. 31, 1935 4 Del Camp Oct. 19, 1948 Del Camp Aug. 15, 1950 Franklin Apr. 24, 1951 FOREIGN PATENTS Australia Oct. 12, 1931 

